Not So Normal After All
by inkoftwilight
Summary: When toddlers, the flock is rescued from the School and lead a normal life, with teenage drama, angst, and romance thrown in. But after being chased by 'werewolves' in Paris, kidnapped, and having strange physical changes, it's clear the School is back.AU
1. Hello School

**Yes, I should be working on the other four stories I have, but ideas keep swarming around in my head, and won't get out. It's starting to get annoying. **

**Disclaimer: I'll say this once, since I hate it when I forget and people review saying how they're gonna report me and stuff. I don't own MR. Alright. There you go. Story time!**

**Max** (She's only in Pre-K right now)

The whitecoat was coming closer with the needle in his hand; I backed up as far as I could against the bars of the dog cage and let out a small whimper. He grinned and reached for the cage. Before he could open the door of the cage, I heard a voice.

"Maxie! Maxie wake up hunny!"

I gasped, and my eyes flew open. I saw my mommy's brown eyes looking down at me. She smiled warmly.

"Come down for breakfast sweetie. It's your first day of school."

I climbed out of my bed sadly. The school that I was at before had needles and tests and those meanie whitecoats. Mommy and daddy said that this was a nicer school, but the only way that they got me to go was because my little sister, Ella, was going. She had started at the beginning of the year, but I was coming in at the month Thanksgiving was in. The reason she started before me was because I still needed time to get back to normal from what the school did to me.

"Mommy do I have to go," I asked as I followed her into the kitchen.

"Hunny don't worry, Ella loves it, there's nothing to worry about."

Daddy smiled at me when I sat on my stool. He had a plate of eggs and bacon in front of me. My little sister grinned at me, her mouth full of bacon. Ari sat in his highchair, drinking from his sippy cup.

"Don't worry sissy. It's so much fun!" We had different teachers, my daddy had told me the day before, that means we won't get to see each other for most of the day.

"It'll be okay sweetie," daddy walked past me and kissed my forehead, then Ella's and Ari's. "I gotta go to work, see you guys when I get back."

I breathed hard, and shoveled my breakfast in my mouth. I'm not sure I'm gonna like this.

The teacher smiled and bent down to get a good look at me.

"You're Maximista, right?" I didn't like her smile, it scared me. I clutched tighter to my mommy's hand.

"Right, but she likes to be called Maxie." My mommy answered for me.

"My name is Ms. Thompson, Maxie. Welcome to school. Mrs. Mattson will show you to your seat okay?" She said to me. She had yellowish brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and blue eyes (see? I know my colors!) An older lady walked over to me, and I liked her a lot better. She had a nice face, with white hair and softer blue eyes. Her smile was warmer, too.

"Well, sweetie, I better get going. I'll pick you up after school." Mommy kissed the top of my head and left the room. Mrs. Mattson took my hand and led me to one of the tables in the big room.

"Ok hunny, you sit here when you come; right next to you is Nick, in front of you is James, and next to him is Monique. Just a second I'll find them in here somewhere." She looked around the room, then I guess she found them 'cause she stopped looking and called their names.

"Nick! James! Monique! Come here!"

I looked over to where she called and blinked. There was a dark boy playing tug-a-war with a block with another boy. Behind the other boy was a dark girl (mommy said they were African-American) building a tower with blocks with another girl, and there was a boy that looked exactly like the girl building blocks with the African-American watching them wrestle. None of them seemed to hear Mrs. Mattson. She frowned and called again.

"Nick, Monique, James! All of you come here!"

They heard her that time, the boys stopped their wrestling and all of them turned to look at her. I guess the boys still had a tight grip on the block because the dark boy let go of it and the other one fell into the tower that the two girls were making. They yelled at him and started hitting him with stuffed animals.

"Monique! Angel!" Mrs. Mattson gave them a look and they stopped hitting the boy. "All of you over here."

They all walked over and looked at me the whole time she was talking.

"Now this is Maxie, she's new here. She's sitting right next to you Nick. I want all of you to show her around, okay?" They all nodded. "Now Maxie, this is Nick, James, Monique, Angel, and her twin brother, Zepheyer." She pointed to everyone as she said their names. "Okay, I'll let you guys play for the rest of free time."

Mrs. Mattson walked away, and I was left alone with the group.

Nick spoke up first. "So your name's Maxie?"

"Yup," I answered.

He frowned. "Can I just call you Max?"

I shrugged. "Sure."

Monique started to talk then. "Yeah that's an awesome name! You look way more like a Max than a Maxie, I don't know why, you just do! You can call me Nudge 'cause that's what everyone says it takes to get me to shut up which I think is kinda mean, oh and you can call Zepheyer the Gasman or Gazzy or whatever, you'll figure it out eventually. And you're gonna love it here it's awesome 'cept the teacher is a real big meanie head, Ms. Thompson, not Mrs. Mattson she's awesome and it's so much fun here, cept nap time that's so boring and-"

James nudged her hard with his elbow. I was staring at her. "How can you talk that much?" Everyone laughed. She smiled real big.

"I'm special!"

James said something mean back, and they started yelling at each other, then they got Angel and Gazzy into it. After watching for a few minutes, I started talking to Nick.

"So what's everyone like?"

He looked at the kids playing. "Well that's Lissa and Sam; she's real shy and doesn't talk a lot. He's really smart and he's nice." I looked at the girl with the really long red hair talking to the boy with brown hair. Nick looked over to some other kids.

"That's Star, the girl with the yellow hair, Dylan, the boy talking, Ratchet, the one with dark hair, Kate, the girl with black hair, and Maya… you know she kinda looks like you." (A/N: Btw, I've only read a preview of Angel, so don't say anything about it please okay?)

I looked at her for a little bit. "I guess a little…but…" Ms. Thompson started yelling.

"Free time is over! Everyone get in your seats!"

All the kids ran to their tables and Nick took me to where we sit. She clapped her hands and continued to yell.

"Okay everyone get your mats for nap time! Only your mat, no one else's, got it?"

I thought she was done so I started talking. "Ms. Thompson? I don't got a mat."

She looked at me. "Don't interrupt me when I'm talking!"

"But you weren't talking!"

She growled at me like a dog. "Don't argue with me."

I pouted in my seat.

"I'll get you a mat," Nick whispered to me. Ms. Thompson shushed him.

She was finally done talking and we got our mats. Me, Nick and the others laid with our heads all next to each other. When the teacher was yelling at Maya for talking, I was whispering to the others.

"I don't like her, she reminds me of the meanie whitecoats." I'm not supposed to say anything about that, but I just like the feeling I get with these guys. But they all looked at me with big eyes.

"You know too," Angel whispered to me.

"You where there with the whitecoats, and the needles, and the cages," James asked me. I nodded, and when they looked at me I knew they all had to go through the same thing I did.

"I'm sorry," Gazzy whispered. I wanted to say something, but then I heard Ms. Thompson.

"Who's talking now?"

At lunch everyone was talking to me. Sam was the first though, since we were the first two at the table.

"So you're new huh," he asked, taking a Capri Sun out of his lunchbox.

"Yup," I said back and took a bite of my ham and cheese sandwich.

"I'm Sam, what's your name?"

I swallowed my sandwich and opened my mouth to tell him, but James sat down and told him.

"That's Max," he said with a big smile.

"I like that name," Lissa told me as she sat down next to Sam.

"Thanks."

"So Max," Dylan said and sat down by James. "What school were you at before?"

"I wasn't at school."

Star sat on the other side of me. "Why?"

They ask to many stuff! "Umm…"

Ella came up behind me and gave me a big hug. "Cause she was sick."

I smiled real big and hugged her back. "Yeah, that's right."

Nick, Nudge, and the others sat down at the table. "So _Max_ is your sister, Ella," Angel asked.

"Yup," she said back and kissed my cheek. "I gotta go to my table. Byes!"

We said goodbye and kept talking. By the end of lunch, I was friends with almost everyone in class. Nick, James, Nudge, Angel, Gazzy, Sam, Lissa, Sam, Maya, Star, Kate, Dylan, Ratchet, and J.J. I like all of them good, but I don't think any of the others know about the School, but that's okay. I think I'm gonna like this school.

**I tried to make her sound like a Pre-k kid, and I think I did okay. And if you didn't catch it, 'yellow' hair is blond, and the 'big smile' she kept saying is them grinning or smirking. R&R?**

**P.S. like I said, I've only read a preview of ANGEL, so please no spoilers okay? I only got to where Maya shows up in Fang's flock. Which, in my opinion, is really stupid of him. But whatever.**


	2. Trouble in PreK

**Okay so, me and my friend were bored, so we started making up a cast for the Maximum Ride movie. We know they probably won't be picked, but we were just making it up. My picks were reasonable, and I thought they were pretty good. But her's were… different. And by her request, I'm gonna tell you what she picked and see what you say. Max: Jeannette Macurdy (I don't think I spelt her name right, but its Sam from Icarly.) Fang: Avan Jogia (I don't really mind this one. I'm just really glad I talked her out of Taylor Lautner.) Iggy: Alex Pettyfer (I don't really mind this one either.) Nudge: Willow Smith (I guess I could see that.) Gazzy: Cody Simpson (She says he has the face of a 7 year old. I guess that's true but still…) Angel: Justin Bieber (I still don't understand this one. She says if you put him in a dress, get him to shave his legs, put him in a wig, and give him a teddy bear, you're good. That thought had me laughing on the floor for ten minutes.) But now what you came for, a chapter! **

**Max **(Pre-K, Dec.1st)

"Max!"

I looked over at Nudge and she pulled me over to the blocks with everyone else. "C'mon and help us build the castle!"

I smiled and started building the wall with Angel. Nudge was talking with stopping like she always does. I've been here for a long time now, and it's starting to snow up here in California. Something made me look up, and I saw Ms. Thompson standing in front of the closed door. For two weeks now, Ratchet has been pulling the fire alarm, something that we're not allowed to do. But Ms. Thompson can't find out who it is, so they just lock the door and stand by it. I watched as Lissa asked to use the bathroom in the hall since this on was full. The teacher let her out, but then locked the door back.

"I hope she'll hear Lissa when she comes back," I said to them.

"Me too," Angel agreed and added a block to the tower. I nodded and started to help them build, having a conversation with Nick like I always do.

**Lissa**

I finished washing my hands and started walking back to the room. I knocked on our door and waited. But no one answered. I tried it again, but they still didn't open the door. Without stopping I kept knocking on the door. After a long time I stopped and sat down with my knees up to my chest. After listening to everyone playing in the room, I started to cry. Just when my head started hurting real bad, I heard a door open. I looked up and saw Ella and her teacher (she's lucky she didn't get the mean one) standing in front of me. Ella's teacher helped me up.

"Don't cry sweetie. C'mon, let's go in my room, okay?"

I wiped my tears on my shirt sleeve and followed her and Ella inside. The teacher told me to wait and play with Ella for a little bit. She smiled big and led me to the play house.

"We were just playing house, but you can play too. We already have a mommy and daddy and a few kids so…" she stopped talking and tried to think about what I could be.

"I know!" She said really loud. "You can be the babysitter!"

I smiled real big. "Okay!"

We played house for a while, and I was having a lot of fun. Until my teacher showed up.

"Lissa!" She yelled across the room. "Get over here now!" The other kids looked at me sadly when I went over to her and she dragged me out of the room be my arm. When we got to the room, she threw me in my chair really hard.

"I can't believe you, Lissa. You were the one pulling the fire alarm all those times, weren't you? And you snuck out to do it again? Unbelievable. You have a time out for the rest of play time this week."

I wanted to say something, but she walked away looking at me in a _really_ scary way. I sat my head down on the table and stared to cry.

**Max**

I watched the whole thing that happened to Lissa, and it got me really mad. 'Cause that just wasn't fair! So even though no one noticed, I went over there to sit with her. At the same time, Sam and J.J. came over. I saw Star getting mad that Ratchet wouldn't come over with her to sit, since it was his fault. After a few minutes she grabbed his shirt and dragged him over. Lissa brightened up when all of us came over and smiled real big. But because of our meanie teacher, we weren't allowed to sit with her. I really don't like our teacher.

Later that day, we were supposed to be reading, but I was talking to the others like I always do. But I guess after a while, I got the teacher really mad.

"Maximista!" She yelled. "That's it! Switch places with Zepheyer!" Gazzy and me looked at each other and switched spots. Now I was sitting with Sam, J.J., and Lissa. But I was friends with them too, so I talked with them too. By now Ms. Thompson was really mad. Cause her face was turning as red as a tomato. But are tomatoes fruits or vegetables? I mean, Nick says that they're fruit, but they can't be. You know why? Cause they were on Veggie Tales. And Veggie Tales doesn't lie.

At nap time, things got ugly. At nap time, they turn of the air and it gets really hot. I mean, our skin cries! Isn't that terrible? But anyway, since it's hot, Dylan went ahead and unbuttoned his shirt. But that's not a bad thing, because I've seen daddy do that a bunch of times. The teacher got really mad, though. She pulled him up from his mat and dragged him to her office, yelling at him the whole time. And I really didn't like that, because it's not bad! So you know what I did? I booed her. She stopped and turned around to stare at me. Dylan smiled big when he heard me. And it wasn't just me. Nick, Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy joined me (James was still sleeping). Then Sam, J.J., and Lissa. But when Maya, Ratchet, Star, and Kate started, they booed the loudest. Ms. Thompson's face was turning red again.

"Stop it! I order all of you to stop it!"

That made us boo louder. Finally, James woke up and was tiredly booing, even though he didn't know what was going on. The teacher screamed.

"Alright! Fine! I give up! Do whatever you want!" She let go of Dylan and stomped into her office, slamming the door behind her. We all cheered and Dylan's group ran over to him.

Nudge threw her hands up in the air. "Yay! Good job, Max!"

I blinked. "What did I do?"

Nick smiled. "You got rid of the teacher!"

James was looking around. "I need to stop sleeping at nap time."

**That's the last of their Pre-K adventures. Max started a revolution at just 5 years old. Next chapter will be third grade, then sixth, and then the plot starts coming in. Reviewers get virtual cookies. :) **


	3. Third Grade

**I finally got ANGEL and finished reading it. I won't give any spoilers for anyone who hasn't read it, but I do sincerely hope Max and Fang can get back together, if not than be best friends again. I thought it was pretty good. Although it was rushed. Anyways, here's the next chapter.**

**Max **(Aug. 7th)

"Bye mom," I called behind me as the sixth grade patrol opened my door, Ella and Ari right behind me. She smiled and waved, driving off. Ari held my hand and I talked to Ella as we walked in the cafeteria to wait for the first bell to ring. A lot of students were already there, and I quickly spotted James and Gazzy throwing Trix cereal at each other across the table. I slid in next to Nick, Ari sat next to me and Ella sat across from me, next to Nudge and Angel. They're eyes instantly went to Ari.

"Aw, now who's this little cutie," Angel asked, her southern drawl thick from living on her ranch. Ari flashed a shy smile, his brown eyes sparkling.

"This is my little brother, Ari. He's in first grade. And he's _really_ smart." I answered and squeezed his shoulder in praise.

James and Gazzy stopped there war long enough to observe him. "Really smart, huh?" Ari nodded at James' question. "Alright then, what's three times three?"

Ella looked around Nudge and Angel. "You don't even know what that is!"

He ignored her as Ari thought, then grinned. "Nine."

My sister and I grinned. The others were stunned and Nick whistled. "Wow," he said. "He's smarter than James."

Maya sat down on the other side Nick. "Although, whoever that is, it's not that big of an accomplishment."

James looked hurt, and we introduced Ari and explained how smart he was. She was in awe, and the rest of the time, we tested him on things we learned at the end of second grade.

**Scene Change**

The bell finally rang, and we all walked to our classes. I let the others go on to our class while I took Ari to his teacher like I promised my mom. He was a little confused, 'cause this is his first year in the second building. After I dropped him off, I headed to my class. I had Mrs. Randy, one of the nicest teachers in the school. Nick, James, Nudge, Angel, Gazzy, Dylan, Ella, Sam, J.J., and some other kids I'd seen but hadn't talked to before. Her classroom was friendly looking and had a white carpet in the cleared part in the back and front of the room. The desks were in five groups of three, and I sat next to Dylan and some other blond boy that I didn't recognize. He must be new. I smiled at Dylan and struck up a conversation with him as we both unloaded the supplies from our backpack. When the final bell rang, everyone scurried to their seats and silenced as the teacher walked in the room and shut the heavy dark green door.

Mrs. Randy was a petite woman, with light blond hair cut short and kind looking blue eyes. She walked to the front of the room and smiled big at us. "Hello class. As you know, my name's Mrs. Randy. Welcome to third grade!" We all cheered and she laughed. She took a little bit explaining the rules (there were very few) and helped us put away our books and folders. "Alright then. Now, I want us all to get to know each other so, I want you all to take turns saying your name, then say something about yourself. Okay? Alright, now let's see let's start with… you." She pointed to Nudge, and the ones in class that knew her well groaned. But she simply grinned in her bubbly way and stood up.

"Hi! I'm Monique. Um, let's see something about myself, um, well I love clothes! All kinds of clothes! Especially if they have sparkles I love sparkles! And I love really pretty bright colors like pink and purple and blue and green, teal's really pretty too, but I hate plaid! I mean, it's just so tacky! That's why I'm never going to Scotland or Ireland or wherever the people wear them, 'cause it's just so ugly. But I really want to go to Paris or England, but mostly Paris because it's so pretty, don't you think? I not going to eat snails though because that's really gross. But I love to eat spaghetti that's really good, and with a little bit of garlic bread on the side, that's real good too! But I won't eat this school's spaghetti its way too gross. I mean it's all watery and everything and the-"

"Hurry and shut her up! Or she'll never stop!" James screamed and covered his ears. Nudge glared and sat down in her chair.

Next Angel stood up. "I'm Angel and I have a horse named Rocky."

"I'm Ella, and I'm Maxie's sister."

"I'm Max, and if anyone calls me Maxie, I'm gonna hurt you."

Everyone laughed, and Mrs. Randy looked at me. "Now Max, that's not a nice way to say things. Instead say something like, 'if you call me Maxie you won't be happy.' Something less violent." I just smiled and nodded, thinking about how cool she was. It went like that for the rest of the class; the only ones that I didn't really know were Daniel, the boy that sat across from me, Maddie, Cody, Katie, and Chey (I don't know why she didn't want to be called Cheyenne.)

The teacher clapped her hands together and grinned. "Now who wants recess?"

We all cheered and ran to line up at the door. I was the line leader, and Nick was the door holder. We grinned at each other as he opened the huge dark green door and I lead us across the hallway and out the glass doors to the playground. The other two classes were already out here, I ran with Nick, James, Dylan, Nudge, Gazzy, Ella and Angel to meet Maya, Star, Ratchet, and Kate at the jungle gym that sat in the white sand. When we got there and climbed up (James beat us on the climb with his monkeyness) Star and Ratchet were already arguing and shoving each other. Kate watched shaking her head and Maya was grinning at their entertainment. We were talking (Nudge rambling on about something for a while) and joking there for a while when the kindergarteners came out. A few of them came over next to the jungle gym and started digging tunnels.

"Those were the days," Ratchet started and leaned back. "When all we did with our time was dig tunnels in the sand."

We all looked at him. "That's still almost all we do with our time," Star pointed out.

He thought for a moment. "Oh yeah." Star rolled her eyes at him.

"Hey guys, watch this." James said and grabbed our attention. "Hey, you little kindergarteners!" They looked up at him. "I wouldn't dig in the sand like that if I were you!"

One of them made a face. "Yeah? You guys do it all the time."

"But do you know why we don't do it anymore?" He paused dramatically. "There's bugs in there. And they crawl under your finger nails and get under your skin. Then they eat all your meat and bones and all your organs." They stopped digging and looked at their fingernails, like they could see the bugs. I shook my head. These poor kindergarteners. "It happened to Dylan over there." James said and pointed at Dylan.

We all looked at him expectantly and he was startled to have the spotlight put on him. He caught on quickly and fell back, grabbing his heart. "The pain, oh it hurts, ow God, whoa!" As he was rolling around in fake pain, Dylan fell through the bars and landed on the ground with a dull _thump_! We all cracked up laughing, while the kindergarteners seemed to realize we were lying and looked pretty peeved off about it.

One of the girls crossed her arms and glared. "You're iggy!"

Another round of laughter hit us, while James looked completely confused. "D-Did she just call me Iggy?"

"I think she meant icky." Dylan sat up from where he fell, rubbing the back of his head.

"You meanie head!" Another one yelled.

Nick shoved James. "Yeah _Iggy!_" He joked.

"You're a big meanie head!" I laughed and thumped his head.

"Hey! I am not!" He was offended that we were agreeing with the little kids.

We continued laughing as we walked to the courtyard to line up as the teacher called us back in. We waved bye to the others as we went our separate ways and followed Mrs. Randy inside. We sat down, still holding back laughs. _Iggy_ slumped in his chair, pouting. All the others stared at us.

"Now what is with all the giggles?" Mrs. Randy asked. We told her what happened, and she laughed along with us, shaking her head. "Those poor kindergarteners." She turned to Dylan, concerned. "Are you alright? Do you need some ice?" He shook his head, a grin on his face like the rest of us.

"Okay then, now we-" A sharp ring tone cut her off. Her face flushed. "Excuse me, this might be important." She turned around and started talking frantically into her cell phone. She hung up and turned back around. "It wasn't really that important. As I was saying, we're going to have a back to school party!"

We all cheered loudly and Mrs. Randy walked to the back. She pulled out five different kinds of Lays chips, root beer, Sprite, Coke, and a couple other kinds of soda, some brownies, chocolate chip cookies, some sugar cookies with green sprinkles, and she said pizza was on its way. The rest of the day we just talked and pigged out on all the food. She didn't really mind anything we did or said, as long as we weren't hitting each other or something. I'm gonna love third grade.

**There we go. The first in their adventures in third grade. Hope you guys liked it. It's not that long, but until high school it's mostly just them messing around like regular kids. And btw, me and my friends have actually had some of the older kids tell us that while we were digging in the sand. And Holden will show up next chapter.**


	4. Fun Time

A/N: So, Word did a stupid upgrade, so now I can't find the italic or the bold or even the underline button. And I use italics a LOT in my writing. -Sigh- Oh, and some of the characters might be a bit OOC, but I think a few of them (like Star or Maya) were the way they are because of the stuff they went through because of the mutation. But they were taken away from that when they were babies, so they never had to go through it. That's just what I think though. Also, I kind of gave Maya a different personality. I hope no one minds, but I think she should be more separate to Max.

Max's POV (Dec. 2nd)

The doorbell rang and echoed through my house. Akila and Magnolia ran barking to the large white front door. My house is very open, and is pretty big. It has a polished wood dining room, a black marble kitchen, an office, the living room, the bar/game room, the master bedroom, a regular bedroom (Ari's), a Jack-and-Jill bedroom (that's two rooms connected by a row of two mini bathrooms and a shower, which is mine and Ella's), and then two garage's, a laundry room, a couple bathrooms, and the built in pool in the back. So, I guess it's pretty big.

I threw away the remnants of my French toast (I'm really lucky Ella can cook) and walked to the door before the dogs have a heart attack. Gazzy and Angel were there, Nudge with them like always. They were surprised when the dogs jumped all over them. Gazzy had to chase Akila around for a while when she stole his beef jerky out of his pocket. Then Iggy arrived, and Gazzy had to chase him around too, to get his jerky back. I had invited everyone over to hang out before Christmas break when we all go out of town. Ratchet's dad dropped him off in their flashy DeLorean and we decided to wait outside for the others. Ella had come outside with us by the time Star arrived. She and Ratchet got into an argument about something stupid really quick, and then Nick arrived.

"Nick, hunny!" His mom called. She was very pretty and shared a lot of his looks, like the olive toned and black hair and eyes. "Give mommy a goodbye kiss!"

Nick froze and couldn't hide his embarrassment like he usually does. The boys cackled.

"Yeah Nicky! Go give your mommy a kiss!" Ratchet made kissy faces at him through his laughter. Yeah, like that went over well. Nick picked up a rock and hit him in the face. Nothing to eventful happened after that, until Maya arrived last. When her brother's black Chevy truck pulled up, he let her out as he rolled the window down to talk to her. I've spent the night at Maya's house lots of times, so I've seen her brother a lot, but the others haven't. They all stared, especially the girls.

"Maya!" He leaned far out the window to talk to her. Jason's twelve years older than her, and just got out of the Marines. So he has a large build, the same golden blond hair as Maya, and he has pretty dark blue eyes from their dad. "You gonna call me when you want to be picked up, right?"

"Yup! See ya later!" Maya grinned and waved at him as he rolled up the window and drove away.

Nudge ran up to her the best she could in pumps. "Was that your brother?"

Maya stared at her. "Yeah, and I'm sure that sometime I could introduce him and his girlfriend to you." Nudge pouted and Maya just shook her head and guided her inside with a grin on her face.

Ella and I went ahead and showed everyone around the house since the only ones that have ever been here were Maya and Angel. They all were shocked at its size and the things we had.

When we finished Star shook her head and said, "Geez, you're gonna walk into my house and be like, 'is this it?'"

I laughed and shook my head. "I'm sure that's not true!" She just rolled her eyes.

"So what do you guys want to do?" Ella asked cheerfully.

"To the game room!" Iggy declared and ran off towards it, everyone right behind him.

Our game room has a bar table and some alcohol in the cabinets (which my parents forbid us to touch), a Nintendo 64, a Gamecube, a pool table, a dart board, and a flat screen T.V.

"Sweet! I didn't see the dart board!" Kate said enthusiastically and ran over to it. I grinned and picked up a dart, carelessly throwing it at the board. To my surprise, it hit dead center in the bull's-eye. Everyone gaped at me.

"Nu-uh!" Maya playfully shoved me. "No fair!" Normally, I suck at darts. But I wasn't gonna let everyone know that.

Then the boys caught sight of Ari's Super Smash Brothers Melee, so I brought out the controllers for the Gamecube, and started going completely insane trying to find the fourth one.

"My God, where did it go?" I yelled in frustration. It's about twenty minutes later and I had taken everything out of the game's cabinet. It had just been in there yesterday! I groaned and started searching in the mess I had made.

"Max… you know we don't have to have the fourth controller…" Dylan pointed out.

"No, I'll find it, okay?" I nearly screamed at him. He started to look a little freaked.

"I'll check your room!" Maya volunteered and ran off to my room.

"What? No, you can't be in my room alone after last time!" I ran after her in a hurry.

"What happened last time?" I heard Gazzy ask Ella.

"I really shouldn't say…"

I hadn't been in my room with Maya for two seconds when she held the dark blue controller over her head and said, "Found it!"

I stared at her. "W-where was it?"

She pointed to the wooden desk my T.V. and computer shared. "Right in front of it."

I sighed and shook my head. My reflection in the mirror that hung on my dark green wall next to my closet caught my eye. As I did my best to fix my hair, Maya came over to stand beside me. It's really amazing how much we look alike, a lot more alike than she and Jason or me and Ella do. We have the same face, the same chocolate brown eyes, we're the same height, and our hair has the same waves. Only her's is a pretty golden color, while mine is brown with sun streaks.

I smiled at Maya and took the controller from her hand. "Let's go and bring this to them."

-Time Skip-

Maya's POV

A few hours later and the boys are entertained by the video games (I wonder if Ari's gonna like that…), Kate and Star were playing darts, and Nudge and Angel were watching me and Max play pool. Max hit the white cue ball and bounced one of mine right off the table and hit Iggy in the head, causing a chain reaction and making him jump off the floating platform and die.

"Dang! Max!" He rubbed the back of his head and glared and Max (who just grinned) as the rest of us laughed at him.

"Whoops." Star said as she hit the wood behind the dart board.

"That's why that wood's there." Max stated.

Then the dart fell and landed standing straight up as the dart fell on the wood the protected the floor. I chuckled. "And that's why that wood's there." The sound of the front door opening echoed through the house.

"Guys?" Jeb said over the barking dogs. "We're back."

"Whatever you guys do," Max started. "Don't say he looks like Donald Trump." Everyone except Ella stared at her weird.

My face burned. "I said I was sorry!"

"It wasn't the right thing to say, Maya."

"I didn't know it would be offensive!"

Then Ari's tiny self walked in the room to see what was going on. I squealed and ran over to give him a hug. "Hey cutie!" He hugged my neck and grinned. "Did you get a haircut?" He nodded in answer.

"Lucky…" I heard Nick mutter and wipe his long black hair out of his face.

Ari noticed the boys' paused Super Smash Brothers' battle. "Can I play?"

"No," Max said at the same time Angel said, "Of course!"

We all looked to Max and she sighed. "Oh fine." She sent a glare his way. I don't know why she doesn't want him playing with us, he's adorable!

He grinned and ran over to one of the chairs in front of the T.V. and Gazzy handed him his controller.

-Time Skip-

"So yeah and then I said-of my gosh, Max you have a pool? Why didn't you say something? Can we go swimming? I'm sure we could borrow yours or Ella's swimsuits and the guys can swim in their shorts, and look how pretty it looks! It's just shimmering in the sunlight! I mean I know its December but it is south California I mean it's not that cold, and can I go out there and look at it? Cause it's so- ow!" Even with Nudge's voice drowning out everything going on in the room, no one really paid attention to what she was doing until she tried to walk outside and didn't see the sliding glass door and ran right into it.

Everyone laughed at her as she sat on the wood floor rubbing her forehead. Max shook her head. "That's the price we pay for cleaning so much."

Max's POV (Dec. 9th)

We came back in from recess, freezing but laughing on the last Friday of school before Christmas break. I sat down in my new seat across from Nick and next to Ella. I was so relieved when the teacher switched seats a few weeks back. I like Dylan fine, he's one of my best friends. But that Daniel kid is too much. He's a huge spaz, and he's really gross. The class stopped talking long enough to notice the snacks on the tables in the back. It was almost all the same things from the first party of the year (we've had about three more since then), except it was a complete Christmas theme. It had Christmas tree brownies, with Rudolph, elf, and Santa Clause shaped cookies and a whole bunch more.

Then Nick's mom came in with soda and a little girl. She was about Ari's age, and looked almost exactly like Nick. She had the same black hair and eyes and olive skin tone.

"Hey Nick," I whispered to him. "Who's that girl?"

"That's my baby sister," he answered sadly. "My stupid dad is trying to get full custody of her, so I don't see her much."

"She's so cute." Ella said.

"Yeah, her name's Sophie." He told us.

"Alright," Mrs. Randy began. "Let's party!"

Then we had our Christmas party, the best one ever in my opinion. It lasted the whole day, and with the kids in our class, it was definitely interesting. I just wish I would've taken more advantage of the moment.

A/N: This is one of my favorite chapters in the story. Hope you guys liked it.


	5. Lamest Field Trip in History

**Hey guys. So good news, I got all my fonts back on Word, and I have a computer in my bedroom. Bad news, school started. So I'm not sure how fast updates will be. But this is one of my favorite stories, so I'll do my best.**

**Max** (Mar. 15th)

"A lot of times you can always tell where they had porta-potties because of the holes in the ground."

Star pointed to a spot on the ground. "Is that where one was?"

The guide shook her head, short brown hair bobbing. "No Hun, that's a gopher hole."

Star thought for a moment, and then was sucked into the conversation that Kate, Ratchet, and the new kid Holden were talking about. I turned back to Nick to continue our conversation, kind of bored with our field trip. We were at some fort place that had a whole bunch of stuff from the pilgrim times. Really, the bus ride here was more interesting.

"But anyways, Buffy would totally beat Sabrina's butt."

He shook his head stubbornly, overly long hair flopping in his dark eyes. "Sabrina can just throw Buffy into a wall or something with magic before she gets a chance to touch her."

My mouth opened to protest when one of the girls from class, Katie, came up to me. "So Max, you're good with decisions, who do you think would when a fight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Sabrina the Teenage Witch?"

In the background I heard her best friend Lexi yell, "Sabrina!" Katie rolled her eyes. Then twenty seconds later, and all four of us are arguing about who would win in a fight.

I groaned and yelled over everyone. "Okay! Let's settle this, Buffy is a teenager who learned to fight vampires and other demonic creatures successfully and went to hell and back to save her little sister. Sabrina is a teenage witch who can not control her powers what so ever and is only responsible for destroying the space time continuum and exposed magic twenty times over." Katie crossed her arms and smirked proudly at my little speech and Nick and Lexi glared.

Lexi scoffed and walked away in her girly manner, Katie trotting loyally after. I grinned at Nick. He rolled his eyes in his unique way. Then everyone started running to the pavilion.

"What's going on?" I asked him, but he just shrugged. Maya ran beside us, with Dylan as always, and pulled us along by the wrists.

"Lunch time!" She told us cheerfully. I grinned as my stomach growled. Finally something good on the field trip!

All thirteen of us squeezed onto one picnic table when we were finally given our food. All we had done today was walk around and look around at the pilgrim stuff. Iggy and Gazzy got yelled at for trying to jump the barbed electric fence into the cow field, Kate broke up Ratchet and Star's fist fight, Nudge, Ella, and Angel complained about the humidity, the guide mixed up me and Maya, Dylan was declared 'charming' by the workers and Nick just watched silently the whole time. So all in all, it was a pretty normal day for us.

Maya chewed happily on her ham and cheese lunchable. "This is so much better than that butter we made."

"Yeah, it was so not worth all that churning." Dylan agreed.

"Did you guys see Cheyenne's face when she was churning?" Ratchet spoke with his mouth full.

"I know, she looked like she was constipated or something." Iggy laughed.

"Not only that, but we had to wait about five minutes before she finished." Gazzy complained.

I shushed them. "Quiet. She's _watching us_." They all looked over at Cheyenne staring at our table.

"That's…creepy." Nick said.

Star decided to freak her out. "What are you looking at?" Cheyenne flinched and ate her sandwich meekly.

Ella took a bite of her candy bar. "She always watches you guys."

"…W-what?" Holden managed to ask.

"Yup. Her and half of the grade."

"Um…okay." I said and we continued eating our lunch like nothing happened.

**-Time Skip-**

After hours of long and boring lessons of the pilgrims, we were finally led to the gift shop. Which was in every way cooler than what we had been learning the whole day. It had eagle talons, wolf fangs, small daggers, neon colored feathers from exotic birds, animal tails, these really cool naturally dyed rocks, and a whole bunch more. I finished quickly, I bought a falcon talon. Yes, I could've bought an eagle talon, but falcons are way cooler. Heh, falcon talon. That rhymes. I was chuckling under my breath, earning some weird stares. At least, I hope that's why they're staring. What Ella said earlier at lunch kind of freaked me out. Nick came over and sat next to me on the edge of the playground.

"What'd you get?" I asked him. He lifted up the wolf fang that hung on a chain.

I smiled at him. "How fitting." He flashed one of his rare lopsided smiles.

Then Iggy and Holden came running over. "Check it out." Iggy said and they both turned their backs to us.

"We got tails." Holden finished. They had clipped the animal tails to their back belt loops. Nick and I laughed at them. Maya came running over, with a tail in her hand. She stared at them for a second.

"I want a tail!" She declared and clipped it to her belt loop. "Yay."

The rest of our gang gradually came over one by one. As we were talking, I noticed that ratchet had bought a dagger from the gift shop.

I stared at him. "That's just straight out scary." He simply grinned, showing the dagger off. Star, of course, rolled her eyes, thinking anything he did was obnoxious.

Then Nudge, in the middle of one of her rants, looked over Dylan's shoulder at something. "Hey, what's that?" We all instantly turned around to see what she was looking at. It wasn't very impressive; it was just one of those wooden head lock things that people were put in during the olden days to be stoned or something. But to Nudge (and Maya, Holden, and Iggy) it was completely entrancing. They all ran over to it, the rest of us following. We all crowded around it, and up close it looked a lot worse, with rotting wood and termites and all that.

Angel stared up at it sadly. "I can't even reach it!" Angel for some reason, skipped out on the tall genes, because Gazzy happened to be pretty dang tall. Angel, on the other hand, is a midget.

Ratchet, being the idiot he is, when Maya lifted the top half up he stuck his head and hands in. She let it fall with a loud _bam!_ He just grinned.

Star shook her head, finding it funny like the rest of us. "I knew this would happen one day."

The Gasman picked up a small rock. "Who wants to play stones?" With out waiting for an answer, he grinned and chucked it at Ratchet. Helpless to do anything, Ratchet only cowered and yelled as we all joined in and pelted him with tiny stones. Oh yeah. Best part of the field trip. Until the teachers came over and got onto us for abusing him. But oh well.

**I'm not the biggest fan of this chapter, but I really want to get it out to you guys. Sorry for not keeping up with the story as much, but I'm trying. **


	6. Popularity Doesn't Protect

**Hey guys. Sorry it's been a while. School's had me stressed out. - So, this the first of sixth grade, also where the plot starts coming in. And this is also one of my favorite parts of the story, cause it's fun to write. Btw, Kate's past is the same from +Anima if anyone here reads that. But I thought it was really fitting. So enjoy anyways.**

**Max** (Aug. 15)

It's Sunday, the day before the first day of sixth grade. Nudge, Ella, Maya and I were looking through our old year books.

Ella pointed to a guy who apparently was in our kindergarten class. "He was in our grade?" The kid, Xavier, has been a grade below us since second grade.

I frowned. "I don't remember him, but I guess."

"That's a little sad," Nudge started. "How there's a whole handful of kids we used to hang out with but don't really remember."

"That's why he always waves to me in the halls!" Maya blustered out in her fashion.

"And he probably gloats to his friends that he knows us, too." Ella laughed.

We stared as she continued laughing. She stopped and looked at us. "Do I have to explain this to you guys?" We nodded.

Ella sighed and walked over to the white board that mom had let me nail to my dark grey walls. She erased what was on there and started to write. We waited as she wrote names on it, each in an order. Our names to exact. When Ella finished, it looked like this:

1. Max

2. Fang

3. Maya

4. Dylan

5. Angel

6. Iggy

7. Nudge

8. Gazzy

9. Ella

10. Ratchet

11. Kate

12. Star

13. Holden

"This," Ella explained. "Is the list of the most popular people in the school. None of us unpopular, just some more than others. But really, we're the 'popular' group. This is the order of the popularity in it."

Nudge grinned and nudged me. "Most popular, go Max!"

I blinked. "Um…okay."

I heard Maya gasp. We turned to her. She was looking at the yearbooks again. "What?" I asked her.

She made a face and shoved the yearbook from third grade in my face. "It's Daniel."

I laughed. "Oh yeah. He was weird. Remember, on the last day of school, when he got so mad at the teacher for giving him a F on his report card, he threw his desk at her?" The others laughed along with me.

"Don't forget when he tried to call the cops on her for taking his bracelet." Ella added. Our laughing fit was cut short, though, when we heard the front door slam. We all stopped and flinched as my parents could be heard arguing with each other again. I had no idea what they were talking about, but it didn't sound good.

As it got louder and louder, Maya and Nudge looked at Ella and I in sympathy. Ari slinked into my room quietly and sat down on my bed next to me, holding his knees to his chest. He hated to be alone when our parents fought. I put me arm around him comfortingly.

Nudge bit her lip and shared a glance with Maya. Maya looked over at me, and our eyes met. I knew what she was thinking. _Should we leave?_

I simply nodded in return. Maya led Nudge out and they waved.

"See you tomorrow." Nudge said simply. Maya waved. Then they closed my bedroom door behind them.

As our parents continued to argue, Ella laid her head on my shoulder. I stroked her hair. Ari was all curled up on my other side. I'm the oldest. I protect them, comfort them, and take care of them. I do it without a second thought.

But…what if I need comforting?

**Fang**

It's the day before my first day of sixth grade. And guess what?

I get to spend it with my douche bag of a father. Really, I don't consider him my dad. He's done nothing for me, just ruin my life and try to take away my sister.

My baby sister, Sophie, she means the world to me and my mom. She's only two years younger than me (which she constantly points out when I baby her) but she's always going to be my little sister.

A few years back, when my mom realized how terrible my dad is and how much better she could do without him, they divorced. He didn't like the idea of my mom getting to keep me and Sophie. But he didn't want me, because I stand up for myself and don't let him push me around. But Sophie doesn't. She feels like since he's her dad she has to do what he says. So, there was this huge custody battle and he ended up sharing custody of me and Sophie.

The weekend before the first day of school just _has_ to be his weekend. I sat on my crappy bed in the completely revolting room that my dad 'generously' let me use when we stayed here, listening to music on the laptop I got for Christmas two years ago.

Then my dad burst in the room, ruining my few moments of bliss. I paused Breaking Benjamin. His bloodshot eyes searched the room, then me, and glared at me. The smell of smoke started to come into my room. I glared back with my own death glare, clenching my fists. I wish we would just get out.

"What are you doing," his gruff voice asked me. It was raspy from smoking and yelling all time.

"What does it look like," I snapped. "I'm listening to music." When is my mom going to get here?

His black eyes narrowed. Sadly, the same eyes I had. "That damn music you always listen to. No wonder you're so messed up."

"How would you know if I was messed up? You don't pay attention to me." I snarled at him.

In an instant my dad was at my bedside, yanking back my overly long black hair.

"Don't you dare talk to me like that. I am your father," he growled in my ear.

I gritted my teeth. "Don't act like it." He released my hair and smacked me across the face.

My dad stormed out of my room. When he was gone I started to rub my wound. I hope it doesn't cause a welt to appear. That would be just my luck.

A few minutes later, Sophie peeked in my room. She stared at me for a second, then ran up and gave me a big hug. My mom followed in behind her, shaking out her wet, black hair and closing her umbrella. Was it raining? I hadn't noticed. As she smiled at me her dark green eyes sparkled. I wish me or Sophie had looked more like her than my dad. I had the same black hair, eyes, and olive skin tone as him. Sophie was lucky enough to at least get different hair, black with auburn underneath.

My mom walked over and kissed me right where I had been hit. I did my best not to wince.

"Ready to go?" She asked.

I jumped up. She threw her head back and laughed. Sophie grabbed her hand and she led us out of dad's house. We didn't bother saying bye. He wouldn't care enough to say anything back. We climbed in her black Volvo and drove off. I turned on the radio just as Green Day came on. My mom nearly squealed.

"Turn it up!" She demanded. I chuckled and blasted it. She and Sophie sang along loudly to everything that came on for the rest of the ride. I just smiled and stared out the window.

A few minutes before we got to the house Sophie yelled, "Look McDonalds!"

My mom grinned. "Let's go." She turned sharply into McDonald's parking lot with screeching tires.

I had to laugh. "How have you never gotten pulled over?" She just shrugged. I sighed.

My mom's the best.

**Maya**

"That is _so_ unfair!"

My mom glared at me. "It is not. You can't go."

"Why?"

"Because I said so. And it's only the first week of school. You can't just be going off."

"It's only Max's house!"

"_No._ Now go to your room before you get me too angry."

I groaned loudly and stomped off to my room. My mom is so unfair! Ever since the beginning of the summer she's been making up random rules that have never applied to me before. Like she doesn't want me wearing shorts to school. What the hell? I always wear shorts to school.

Nothing annoys me as much as when she said, 'Why can't you be like your brother?' I felt like screaming. She's always comparing me to him. 'Jason never did this.' 'Jason was okay with that.' 'I wish you would learn from Jason.' God, it's so annoying! I thought I wasn't supposed to have to deal with this until I was a teenager? I'm still twelve!

But I _have_ to go to Max's Friday the 13th sleepover this week. I don't care what my mom says. I bet my dad would say yes. Thinking about this, I decided to call him. It might be babyish, but oh well. I took out my cell phone and dialed his number with out a second thought.

Worst. Idea. Ever.

**Kate**

First day of sixth grade tomorrow. So why am I not happy? In sixth grade we get to rule the school and the younger kids give us more respect. It might have something to do with the fact my dad just had to remind me that ten years ago today they adopted me.

That means that ten years ago today is the day I ran away from my first home. I have been doing my best to forget about it. But it's still in my nightmares, and now my dad unknowingly sparked the memory.

_Flashback time!_

_I was only about two or three. I was born with amazing super strength, which thankfully is now gone. My dad hated me for it. My mom loved it._

_One night my dad came home drunk, like always. My mom got onto him for it, like every night. I was cutting tomatoes for dinner, trying to stay out of it. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw him about to hit her._

"_No daddy!" I screamed and ran up to him, the knife still in my hand. I tried to grab his wrist, and ended up stabbing him in the arm. _

_He screamed. My mom screamed. I just stared. He ripped the knife out and threw it somewhere, making his blood fly all across the house. _

_My dad stared at me for a second, and then grabbed for me. I screamed and ran out of the house. I made the mistake of running into the backyard, which was a thick forest. By now it was nearly pitch black outside. _

_My mom was screaming for me. I could hear my dad chasing after me, shouting at me. I didn't stop. I knew he'd hurt me. Maybe worse. _

_After a while and I was exhausted. But he was still behind me, I didn't turn around to check how far. Chancing it, I looked behind me. It was just my luck that I tripped on a tree root. Tired and scared to death, I ran behind a large oak tree. My dad kept running. I stayed there for a long time, sobbing silently, praying that he wouldn't find me._

_I cried myself to sleep that night. The next day, I risked going out to the road. I was found by a passing car, and they took me to the nearest foster home. I told them what happened. They checked my house. _

_They found my mom dead. My dad was gone. _

_I stayed at the foster home The kids there didn't really like me. Why would they? I was a messed up mutant three year old. A few months later, my new parents adopted me. _

I try to forget it. But now, I think it's impossible.

**There we go. Finally finished! Hope you guys like it. It's mostly just foreshadowing for later on in the story, but it was necessary. R&R please**


	7. Workin At The Car Wash

**Slow update again. But the plot is coming in! Well, not in this chapter. This is just a filler.**

**Max** (Nov. 6th)

I squirted the van that pulled up soaked with water from the hose. I laughed as Star threw her sponge at the window and watched as it slid down slowly.

Maya shoved Ratchet away from the bucket-so hard that he fell to the ground-so she could get the 'SpongeBob Sponge'. Seeing her act goofy made me smile. Since the day she called her dad to ask if she could come to my party, he got in a wreck and has been in the hospital ever since. Even though she hasn't said anything, I know that she thinks that he's in the hospital because of her. She hasn't been as happy as usual.

Right now the sixth grade was at a car wash to raise money our banquet and end of the year field trip to Islands of Adventure.

"Who gave _you_ the hose?" I jumped, and turned, squirting whoever it was that snuck up behind me.

Fang jumped back, doubling over and (with some bad language) yelled at me. I turned off the water and stared at him in shock. He looked up at me, his black shirt now soaked. "Gimmie that." He wrenched the hose out of my hands.

"Hey-HEY!" I started to scream as he blasted me with water. He threw the hose down to the ground, looking smugly at me as I stood there, my whole upper body soaked. Fang grinned and stripped off his wet T-shirt, tossing it down next to the hose. I glared at his back as he grabbed a sponge and started washing.

Iggy stared at Fang shirtless for a second. "Are we stripping now?" he asked and proceeded to take his shirt off. Fang rolled his eyes and threw his sponge at Iggy's face.

"Hey man!" He threw his dishrag at Fang. Fang glared and tackled Iggy to the concrete. I watched them wrestle and shook my head. Maya pointed and laughed at them. Laughing under my breath, I went to work washing the van.

"Iggy! Fang! Stop fighting and get to work! And put your shirts back on!" I laughed as I heard Mrs. Randy get onto those two.

"Oh sure," Lissa muttered. "She yells at two hot guys for wrestling shirtless, but not at the preps for doing nothing but tanning?"

We both snuck a glance at a few of the girls lying on their towels and stretched out to bathe in the sun. I rolled my eyes. "Of course. What else would you expect from them?"

"But, um, Max can I ask you something?"

"Shoot." I scrubbed at some grease on the rims of the tire.

"Are you and Fang, you know, a thing?"

I stopped scrubbing in shock and stared at Lissa. "Me and _Fang_? What would make you think that?"

She shrugged and pushed some of her bright red hair out of her face. "Um, how about five minutes ago? You know when you two were flirting and squirting each other with water?"

"Yeah but that's…friend stuff." It was Lissa's turn to stare at me. "…What?"

"Nothing. But so…you don't mind if I you know, go for him?"

My stomach started to feel queasy. "You like Fang?" She bit her lip and nodded. We both went over to put our sponges back in the bucket to soak more soap as the van drove away, now squeaky clean.

"Yeah, I mean, he's super cute, and he's funny, and he has that sort of 'dark and mysterious' look to him don't you think?"

"Um, yeah I guess. I've never thought of him like that." Fang's been my best friend for years, that'd be weird.

"Would you mind?"

"No, go ahead." Despite myself, my smile was a bit strained as Lissa grinned at my approval. I watched her run off to start washing the next car. Shrugging off my confusions about Fang, I walked after her.

Well, the next car wasn't really a _car_. More like a monster truck. Me, Lissa, Fang, Holden, Iggy, and Maya stared up at it. Maya walked forward and climbed up its tire (which was as tall as she was) and up onto the bed of the truck.

She looked down on us. "Well? C'mon!" We laughed and climbed up after her.

Ella and I followed Maya into her house, laughing and soaking wet.

"Dude, that monster truck was insane!" I said.

"I know! I almost fell off." Maya laughed.

"I didn't even try to clean it," Ella added.

"And your dog kept getting muddy and then jumping on me!" Maya told us.

I raised up my hands in defense. "Hey, you knew the risks when you tried to pet her!"

We walked into her living room. "Mom sorry about the mess, we-." Maya cut off when she saw her mom.

Maya's mom was pretty, with long, honey blonde hair, tan skin, and hazel colored eyes. But tonight her eyes were puffy and bloodshot and she had a tissue in her hand. I saw her brother Jason was sitting slouched on the couch. He wasn't crying, but he looked like he wanted to.

Maya's grin fell, and her shoulders dropped. "Is dad okay?" She asked in a whisper. There was a silence. Maya choked back a sob. Ella bit her lip. My heart dropped. Maya's mom held her arms open. Her daughter ran into them and began to cry.


	8. Goodbye

**Fang **(May 17)

Yesterday was the field trip to Islands of Adventure, and today it was all everyone could talk about. I was tired and about to fall out of my seat, but I was joking with the group anyway.

We were all in the cafeteria that morning before school started, and I kept looking over my shoulder for Max. With the end of the year coming up soon, I kept meaning to tell hear how I felt (since like fourth grade…) but you know things happen. Like in fifth grade, on the way back from the trip to the bowling alley.

"_Psst, Fang. Empty seat next to Max," Iggy muttered from behind me as we filed onto the bus._

_I frowned and looked over to where Max was sitting alone, looking out the window. The bus driver told us to sit in the same seats as before, and Max had been sitting with Maya._

"_That's Maya's seat," I hissed._

"_Who cares?" Then as we walked by, Iggy shoved me into the seat harshly. I fell onto Max, and she shoved me away in surprise._

"_Geez Fang! A simple 'hello' would be nice!" She yelled at me like she was mad, but her body was completely relaxed, and her brown eyes were teasing. "First you drop a bowling ball on my foot and now this?"_

_I grinned the sheepishly. The bowling ball was a trick to try to impress her. It was working well, until I dropped it._

"_At least I didn't walk into the GIRLS' BATHROOM," I said, yelling the last part so Holden and Gazzy could hear._

_Max laughed, and turned to look back out the window. I leaned over her to find what she was looking at. She smelt like vanilla._

"_What are you looking at?" I asked._

"_Those boys playing air hockey." She pointed to the boys in the bowling alley._

"_Why are you watching them?" I asked. She shrugged and we both sat back down._

"_Uh, hey Max?" I stuck my hands in my hoodie pocket so she wouldn't notice they were shaking._

"_Hmm?" Max was looking right into my eyes, and I started to think about what a pretty color they were. _

"_You know you're like my best friend, right?"_

_Max grinned. "Better be. I took that mini corn dog for you in that food fight last week."_

_Nervous as I was, I grinned back. That food fight had been fun. "Yeah, but I just wanted to ask…"_

_She was curious now. "What?" I had her undivided attention now. Okay…I can do this._

"_Nicholas!" My teacher snapped at me from up at the front of the bus._

_I groaned. "What?"_

"_Did you not hear? Sit with the people you did on the way here." She turned to where Maya and Dylan were sitting. "Hickman! Switch seats with Sanchez!" _

_Maya stopped mid sentence, her hands freezing in whatever she was gesturing. Both of us shared a look and sighed heavily. We brushed past each other and switched seats. I groaned and let my head hit the back of the seat._

_Dylan patted my shoulder. "That's some bad luck man." I glared at him. _

That's just one of many times. They're more embarrassing stories, but I won't mention those.

Maya was excitedly telling a story, gesturing largely with her hands. She kept glancing over at Dylan, gauging his reactions to her humor. Then Max sat down next to me, Ella right behind her. Ari sat in between them, his dirty blonde hair falling over his eyes. Ella was wiping away tears from her face.

"Max, what-."

She cut me off. "Our parents are getting a divorce. Me and Ella are moving to Manhattan after the school year with our mom. Ari is staying here with our dad."

Everyone at our table was silent. My heart dropped into my stomach. "Are you-are you sure?"

Max nodded, keeping her face impassive. "They told us to start packing," Ella muttered and rubbed her puffy red eyes. Max swallowed hard. Without thinking, I put my arm around her shoulders. She laid her head on my shoulders, and I resisted the urge to kiss her forehead. The rest of the group came around, and we incased the three of them in one big group hug.

If anyone said anything, I didn't hear them. I was feeling numb, trying to figure out how to tell Max how much I liked her in a week.

**~ May 25 ~**

Tonight was the sixth grade banquet, and also the last night I'd get to spend with Max. No, I hadn't told her yet. But I will tonight. The guys have been bugging me about it all week, and the girls have been hinting at it whenever I go somewhere alone with Max.

Oh, and I'll miss Ella too. Just not like Max. Ella's like, another sister to me.

After being bombarded be pictures when we walked in, our group was sitting all at the same table. (There was only supposed to be eight at a table, but hell, that's the same thing they say about the lunch tables, and we still manage thirteen.) I hated the way we had to dress at this thing. Before I left, my sister said I looked like 'one of those cute Disney stars'. I don't take that as a compliment.

Max's mom walked by and murmured something in Max's ear. Max sighed as her mom walked away. She turned to me and stood up.

"C'mon Fang. My mom wants me to get her camera out of the car for her."

I stood up, trying not to look earnest. "Yeah, sure."

"Yeah, Fang." Nudge said.

"Go help the pretty little lady," Ratchet grinned. I glared at them both and followed Max out of the large dining hall of the church we were using tonight.

It was cool outside, but I still put my hands in the pockets of my dress pants. It's sort of a nervous habit. Max and I walked in silence to her mom's van.

I looked ridiculous compared to Max. I was in dress pants, a white T-shirt (although my mom found a trick to make it look like a dress shirt), a black jacket that was buttoned up over it, and a black tie. Max was in a pretty spaghetti strap yellow dress that went down to her knees, and it was all scrunched up at the bottom half. Her brown hair was curled, and the color of her dress contrasted her tan skin nicely.

After a silence Max said, "Nice monkey suit."

I hid my embarrassment with a smirk. "Nice sundress Barbie." Max pursed her lips in irritation. We got to the van, and Max opened the passenger's side door and found the camera immediately. She slammed the door shut and glared down at the silver camera in her hands.

"I should just break this thing right now," she snapped.

I blinked in surprise. "You don't mean that."

Max glared at me. "Why shouldn't I? This thing is so _stupid_. This dress is stupid, the move is stupid, and this whole divorce is so freakin' STUPID!" She raised her hand to throw the camera, but I caught her wrist.

"Max. Calm down." She looked away from me as I spoke. Max pulled away from me, her eyes glistening.

"I don't wanna calm down!" She shrieked. Caught off guard, I stayed silent. I'd never seen Max cry. Ever. She wiped away tears with the back of her hand. I pulled her into my arms and let her cry on my shoulder. I have no idea what to say when a girl cries, let alone Max, so I didn't say a word, just stroked her hair.

After she calmed down, I pulled back and looked her in the eye. "C'mon, Max. We're gonna see each other again." Max nodded, her lip still quivering. She wiped away more tears and I thought, _how can she look this pretty while crying?_

"Guys!" Dr. M called from over by the church entrance. "C'mon, food's ready!"

"Coming!" I called back. I looked at Max and started to say something, but she cut me off.

"Let's go eat." Max said and pulled me along as she walked back.

I guess the others were kinda disappointed when me and Max didn't walk in holding hands and laughing. I saw Ella and Nudge visibly deflate when we came in. But you know, I don't think that was the right time to make a move seeing as she was crying.

About an hour later we were all just finished with our food when the music slowed down. It was playing Check Yes Juliet, but it turned to My Immortal by Evanescence. Immediately I thought, it's a slow song! This was my chance to dance with Max.

I swear right before I ask, like I was turned toward her, my mouth open, when Sam cuts me off.

He pops up out of nowhere behind her. "Uh, hey Max?"

Max turned around and smiled at Sam. "What's up?"

"Uh, I was just wondering…do you, maybe want to dance?" My heart dropped. Max wouldn't say yes to him though, not _Sam_.

But she did. "Yeah, sure." Sam grinned, and he held out his hand to her as they walked out onto the dance floor. I stared at them as they danced, Sam said something that made Max laugh. The others started talking.

"Oh my gosh."

"Oh, Fang!"

"Geez bro. That's some bad luck."

"Bro, Sam just did what you've been trying to do for two years now, in a few seconds."

I glared at Ratchet. "Thanks man." I ate the rest of my food in silence.

**~ Later ~**

At the end of the night, Max and Ella said their goodbyes. I wasn't saying much, mostly just watching. I didn't really have much to say. Dr. M was waiting in the van. When Max came to me, she surprised me by giving me a long hug. I held her tightly and buried my head in her hair.

Before we pulled apart she whispered in my ear, "Thanks Fang."

I frowned at her. "For what?"

Max smiled sadly, "For being my best friend."

I blinked in surprise. "Oh, um, yeah. I mean-no problem." Max smiled and went to meet Ella at the car. They climbed in, and as they drove away, Max turned around and waved at me. I waved back. I watched as they drove away. Iggy came over next to me.

"You didn't tell her did you?"

I shook my head. "Nope." Iggy sighed and after a moment, knocked me upside the head. I grabbed the back of my head in surprise.

"Dude!"

"You ran out of time Fang. Good job." I sighed and put my face in my hands.

This was going to be a crappy summer.

**Finally finished with their elementary school adventures! I was actually going to put more details in the banquet, but I started to get bored so I skipped it. Next up is high school. That's gonna be lots of fun. :) **


	9. Author's Note

Hey guys.

So, you probably hate me for never updating.

Truth is, I've tried. I really have. But my heart isn't with fanfiction like it used to be. I love my stories, I really do, and I want to finish them, but I'm not focused on those right now. I don't have the motivation to write them. I'm sorry about that. There's just nothing I can do right now.

I've been writing original work a lot. I actually just finished the second draft of my first book, and posting that and another story on Wattpad. I might go back to my fanfictions eventually, because I still want to write them, but like I said, that's not where my muse is. I have so many original works just everywhere that I want to work on more.

Sorry guys, I love you all. Eventually I might finish these stories. If you don't want to wait and see, pm me and I'll give you a summary of what happens.

Link of my profile on Wattpad: user/JessicaLeann920

I love you guys. See you.


End file.
